Rapture
by Erroneous Bard
Summary: He had no time to waste on friends. His family was gone! They weren't just gone, they were stolen from him. His mother, and father were both murdered, but somehow his brother had survived. Itachi lives on, and Sasuke is furious to find that Itachi will not help him seek revenge. What's so important to Itachi that he won't help?
1. These four walls

_**Note**: Okayyyy, so here's yet another upload. I'm in LOVE with this, so please let me know your opinions. If you're a fan of mine, then know I'll be updating my other stories very soon, just in final editing process. _

_Please let me know how you like this one!_

_This story is a mystery to me as far as the final, epic pairing. It will either be Itachi, or Sasuke...Who will she chose? So I'll let you lovely readers decide. As this story progresses, let me know which pairing you like best, and I'll start keeping count. Which ever pairing gets the most praise, I'll work it in. I have my plot already evolved a bit, but as for the final couple, I'll let you help me!_

_Yes, it will be a Sasu/Saku fic as well, but it's not going to be immediately in love or anything crazy. This isn't a story book Sasu/Saku fic...As for Ita/Saku, personally, I'm eating them up in this fic._

_Please let me know if you see any mistakes. It was un-beta'd._

_**AU**._

_So here goes._

**_Pairing: Sasu/Saku/Ita_**

_**Rating:** Will be rated M for mature themes. Currently, mostly language._

_**Goal:** Next chapter will be up in the next few weeks. 2 or 3, maybe sooner if I get the inspiration. Please remember to let me know which couple you like, as it progresses._

_**Disclaimer:** I **don't** own anything related to Naruto. Only the plot and my dreams!_

* * *

__These Four Walls__

* * *

A sudden inertia hit him, washing through his bones with a stiff uneasiness. The abrupt tightness arresting his lungs made passing each breath to his starving lungs impossibly difficult.

"Uchiha-san, I regret to inform you that your mother and father didn't make it through surgery." Disgracefully apathetic eyes gazed back at him, dutiful words, well rehearsed and unsympathetic. Words that strangled him further. "Your brother remains in intensive care. When we know more, you'll be the first to know." With a dismissive nod, the doctor turned and left, leaving Sasuke to his thoughts.

It's like the world was ending, collapsing in on him. His hand came up in a sweeping motion, cutting through his dark hair and dismembering it much like his mental state.

Images of his family were replacing the comforting darkness every time he closed his eyes. His mother, his father, and his brother; his _family_. Why did this happen to him?

He sat quietly in one of the many matching, ugly chairs in the waiting room, his eyes unfocused, and his head thrumming with pain. The most amazing part was that an unsteadying numbness was already settling in. Not acceptance, but a coldness was already bubbling to the surface.

His eyes burned and his shoulders felt heavy with the weight of the day. That morning at precisely seven in the morning, he received a call from the Konoha hospital. His family were the victims of a break in. A robbery. The police force that reported to him informed him that it was a team. Several armed perpetrators that entered in the dead of the night, and gunned down his family members, with the intention of robbing them blind.

They not only succeeded in robbing them, but they succeeded in leaving no witnesses, it seemed.

Sasuke held his breath in an effort to calm himself down. His family was a distinguished, extremely wealthy one, so it was clear why they were chosen as the target of such an incident. It was just unbelievable that he had lost both of his parents, and his brother was at risk of the same thing because of someone's greed.

Standing quickly and unexpectedly, he vacated the room, running around the corner blindly.

Watching his feet as they hit the smooth, white tiled floors, his breath became ragged. He was alone. His mother, his sweet mother, were gone. His father, strict as he was, but still a good father who was proud of his sons, was gone.

He pumped his legs harder, ignoring the shout from the nurses he past scalding him for running in the hospital.

Before he recognized the last shout was actually a warning, he felt the collision, it being so intense that he was knocked off of his feet and onto his back, staring at the ceiling. He groaned and he heard a twin groan from in front of him.

Pushing himself up into sitting position, his eyes fell upon the mess he had caused. The woman he ran into, also sprawled out upon the cold floor. Rose colored locks muddled by the fall, framed a pale, petite face. Expressive jade green eyes regarded him with a dazed appearance, and her jaw with slack in confusion.

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment, brushing off her teal colored frock dress. After another moment of his silence, her eyebrow tweaked and she rose from the ground rather inelegantly. "Though, in case you forgot, this is a hospital, so you shouldn't be running."

He stood annoyed that he had been interrupted, and even more angry that his stomach was twisting in knots that made him feel nauseous. He shrugged and edged past her silently, but her undignified snort stopped him. Though he didn't turn around to look at her, he could practically feel her glare against his shoulders.

"There's no need to apologize or anything." She grumbled and he heard the shuffling of feet in the opposite direction.

He tossed an irritated glance behind him, to see an empty hall. Infuriated, and still emotionally unstable, he stormed off down the hall.

* * *

Her fingers were careful as they navigated around his wound, redressing it with gentle precision. She tilted her head to the side, an intense focus painting her face, and pulling her eyebrows down into a frown.

It was surprising that he was alive at all. Cruel beating, as well as a gun shot to the shoulder. Much more to the left, and he would've been certain to die from the wound. It was amazing to Sakura.

She gazed down at him, handsome even with the bruises and cuts marring his visage. Several weeks now that she had been his nurse, and he was just beginning to get some color to warm his pallor.

"How are you today, Uchiha-san?" She asked quietly. As it had been since she was first assigned to his room, no reply parted from his lips. With his heavy breathing, his induced sleep would likely not be disrupted by her soft voice.

His steady silence weighed heavily on her. She longed to see him happy, and well on the way to being healthy.

Her eyes shifted to the flowers at his bedside, and she smiled down at him, "You must've had a visitor," She was overjoyed for him. All the time that she was caring for him, she had never seen a visitor of any kind. His was the most dreary room in the whole building in her opinion. To see the bright red poppies positioned by his bedside, gave her small relief. Previously, she had wondered why this attractive man didn't even have one visitor.

She reached out and spun the vase around, searching for a tag, but spotting none. A frown creased her pale, oversized forehead, "Hhm, no name." She turned to the man before her, setting down her clip board on the bed beside him. His chest was a fixed rise and fall, and his face made tranquil by his sleep. "Maybe it's from your girlfriend?" She grinned at him, reaching down and checking his temperature, followed by his heart rate. A steady thrum, deep and warm, like she had began to imagine his voice sounding. She spoke softly, and companionably to him as she did so, "I bet you have a beautiful girlfriend." She didn't let it bother her that, if he did have a girlfriend of any sort, beautiful or not, the woman hadn't shown her face in this hospital as of yet.

As always with Sakura, she tried not to take it personally in his defense. Such was the problem with taking your work home with you. She always found herself getting attached to her patients.

She sighed, looping her stethoscope around her neck and walking around to pull the curtains closed. The sun was just barely disappearing behind the horizon and it was a beautiful sight. She lingered on it for a moment, her eyes drinking it in before she snapped the fabric together, shutting it out. "Uchiha-san, you've been healing well. You're going to make a full recovery," She turned back towards him, "And you should be waking up any day now. So hurry up, get your rest in, so that you and I can meet already."

Her eyes dawdled over his sleeping form for a moment longer before she showed herself out hastily. This particular patient was getting to her. She found herself wondering about him. More curious than she should be.

The souls of her shoes squeaked against the bleach white floor as she walked slowly along the halls of Konoha Hospital. She was having a hard time denying her tired feet the pleasure of release.

Passing the counter, she smiled at the familiar face there.

"Hinata-chan. I think I'm going home for the day." Her eyes closed in a friendly smile.

The pale faced girl before her looked up, her lips parting in surprise. "Oh, Sakura-chan," Her nervous expression wasn't unforeseen. Shaking hands, pretty pink blush, and vibrant eyes we're to be expected.

"Let Tsunade know for me," She winked, and walked off without waiting for a response. As soon as her back turned, the demeanor dropping and her exhaustion taking the reins. Her shoulders slouched and she rolled her shoulder in it's socket, hoping to ease the tension there.

The long trek back to her apartment was made in a dislocated, dream like state, brought on by the forgoing absence of sleep. She had long ago drown out the pinching of her nerves brought on by stress, with coffee and extreme patience. In fact, her entire body had began to reek of the caffeine, and her muscles had reached the inevitable point of permanent, continuous strain that even her hands couldn't kneed away.

* * *

"Hiya there, Teme," Uncharacteristically dull. "Gimme a call, ne?"

.

_Beep._

.

"It's been a few days now since I last called, so I was thinking," A slight pause, "Let's get some ramen. My treat? Call me, Teme."

.

_Beep_.

.

"Sasuke." Grave now, seriously out of character for his overzealous, silly friend. "You can't hide forever." Abrupt ending.

.

_Beep_.

.

Sasuke scrubbed a hand through his hair, as was his habit, his black eyes now accustomed to the darkness of his open, bland apartment.

Another beep. "Teme!" Angry now, "You can't just disappea-" He slammed his finger down on the end button, effectively ending yet another worried message from his best friend.

His empty apartment had been his haven for weeks now. The silence was after his heart and with it's white walls, and scarce furniture, he felt calm. It was a break from the torment of his mind.

He really should call Naruto, but the moment the thought crossed his mind, it disappeared. Inconspicuously absent and replaced by his far more important self loathing.

He had no time to waste on _friends_. His family was gone! They weren't just gone, they were fucking stolen from him. Taken before their time!

Sasuke was angry, livid even, but curiously, he was not sad. He was not grieving, because he refused to allow this injustice. He would grieve when his parents memory had been redeemed.

He was determined to fix this wrong, no matter how long the journey, or what happened along the way. He would worry about all of that stupid, nagging shit at the end of his journey.

A sigh parted his lips, and with it came the cementation of his new goal. His new goal meant that he needed to do something he was very, very nervous to do. He would have to speak to his brother. He would have to ask his brother to relive _that _moment, so that he could know.

He needed to know what happened in order to get revenge.

Standing and heading towards the door, he stepped out into the sunlight for the first time in days.

_Itachi_.

* * *

She was articulate, kind, polite, and she genuinely seemed to want to help him. This was causing a peculiar magnetic pull each time he looked at her. Undeniable, and insatiable. He thought it must have been the fact that she was his only visitor. He hadn't seen one friendly soul besides her. Maybe it was just out of duty, on her part, but he felt that it was deeper than that.

Uchiha Itachi looked into the green eyes of his doctor, who he had the pleasure of meeting earlier that morning, with a hint of awkwardness, and since then, a lot of warming up.

He didn't often warm up to people very quickly, and he was certain that from her point of view, he would be rather detached and sour, but as far as he was concerned, he rather liked this girl.

People usually shied away from him, were intimidated by him, or threw themselves at him, for various reasons. She did none of those things. She simply was there, smiling at him, and talking to him. Checking in remarkably often, and each time, with a very friendly intention.

By her third visit on this day, his first day awake after that night, he thought that he could get used to this surprisingly beautiful lady doctor named Haruno Sakura.

"Uchiha-san." Her voice was smooth to his ears like rose petals were to the touch. "Are you feeling better?" She rounded the corner and came over to his bedside with a small grin.

He gave her a small nod, "Much." Was all he said, and she seemed to find this fact very pleasing. Her pink cheeks rounded into a much bigger smile.

He took a long moment to absorb her warm aura. He was fortunate to have her at his side at the moment, lest his time be overtaken agonizing over his thoughts. Each time he closed his eyes his vision whirled into a tangle of nightmarish images.

As she reached a graceful hand out to check his temperature, not with the thermometer, but with the back of her hand, he couldn't tear his gaze away. Yes, he was very pleased and thankful to have her there.

"Uchi-"

"Itachi." He corrected her mildly.

Huge, bright, impossibly wide eyes gazed back at him in the most self-conscious, lovely way. It was almost surprising to him that he contained his interest and managed to suppress the smile that was struggling to surface on his visage.

"Itachi-san." She breathed out softly, and took a step back from his bedside, "Is there anyone I should notify, now that you're awake?"

That was an innocent question, but it dug into his skin and festered there, infecting his mood like a virus. He felt a frown pull down his eyebrows, and he brought a hand up to scrub it away. As he dropped his hand back down, his face was clean of any expression. "No one."

She was clearly caught off guard by this, and her jaw was gaping in a surprisingly adorable way. "Oh," She sputtered, her cheeks going the same soft pink as her rosy hair, "Okay then." Out came her paperwork after that, and she inspected the board like it might disappear if she took her eyes off of it. Her tone switched from the captivating and smooth it had been all day, and settled on a very sober and serious one. "Right, well, we'll need to keep you here for a while longer I'm afraid. We have many more tests to run, and you'll need plenty of rest and recuperation, but soon," She did look up here, and when their eyes met it was like lightening striking; bold, magnificent, enthralling, and intense, "you'll be free to leave."

Leave? How could he ever leave with such a lovely creature present to take away the pain? He nodded and watched as she left, slightly awkwardly, glancing back at him before reaching the door, and pausing.

His eyes didn't leave her form until she was all the way out of the doorframe. Such a oddly thought provoking girl.

With his new doctor absent, and only silence and loneliness to fill her wake, he felt a familiar darkness settling in on him. He brought both hands up to his face, dropping his forehead into his palms.

His family had fallen apart. His family, was gone.

_Sasuke_.


	2. Judgement

_Let me just say, that I'm sorry for the long distance between posts, but as life does, it just sort of happened. However summer break means no class or exams or any of that. So I'm free a bit on time. I'm updating this story as well as about 3 more. Hope you enjoy~_

_Leave me a review if you love me~_

* * *

Sasuke pulled open the doors with steady hands, but a wild, compulsive heart beat. Unparalleled anxiety curdled his blood as watched his feet hit the ground. Their rhythmic tap-tap-tapping made his stomach settle, but did little to balance out his erratic pulse.

He simply couldn't continue on without knowing! He had to know what happened to them in order to extract his revenge, and in order to really know what happened, he would have to speak with someone who was there.

Itachi. Maybe it was too soon for him to speak about this, but Sasuke was beyond caring. He was a ghost of himself, and would be until he settled this. Until he got his vengeance, he would never be the same.

For someone as nervous as he was, his pace was almost languid, careless. To an onlooker, he probably even looked calm. If only he really felt as stable as he looked.

It was at this time, he reached the door he knew his brother was behind. The nameplate on the outside of the door was calling him.  
Pulling him further, beckoning him with promises of information. Information that could help him achieve justice.

His hand settled on the doorknob, and he pushed it without a moments pause. He didn't have time to pause. Not when he had so many questions.

Much to his surprise, Itachi was sitting up in bed. Gazing blankly out the bay-like window that lined the far wall of the room. Upon the squeak of the door opening, he shifted those eyes to meet Sasuke's own.

It was akin to the feeling of being punched in the chest. A wind stealing, thought nullifying feeling. Gazing into the eyes of his brother; his only remaining family, whom he might have lost to the same people who killed his parents, was an awakening experience.

Sasuke gazed quietly at him for a moment from his place in the doorway, before he carefully turned to shut the heavy door. The small break in eye contact gave him reprieve.

By the time Sasuke turned around, he felt recharged. Vengeance once again giving him unspeakable courage.

"Itachi." He breathed the name, and it felt like a dam of emotion was unleashed upon him. His brother that he looked up to so much.

He met mildly dim eyes, and a slight but present smirk. "Little brother."

The greeting set his legs free of their stiffness and he was at the bedside in just a moment. His knees hit to side of the hard plastic frame, and his hands came to rest on the mattress there.

Itachi didn't move in the slightest other than to barely angle his head more frontal. They gazed quietly at each other.

For a moment, Sasuke wondered if his brother hated him. It had been weeks since the incident, and yet he hadn't been to see Itachi even once. He simply couldn't bring himself to. To stop thinking about their parents, or to think of seeing his brother in bandages. It was too dark of a thought, and it kept Sasuke away for all this time.

"I'm..." He started the sentence quietly, "sorry I didn't come sooner."

Itachi fed him silence, followed by words that filled him to the brim. "I understand." They placed a warmth within him.

"I've been coming up with a plan." Sasuke admitted quietly. The anger was pulsing to life again. It was an ugly beast created from his pain. One that he couldn't tame, nor could he defeat. He was, in all likelihood, a slave to it. "A plan to find the ones who did this to them. I'm going to kill them, Itachi."

A deep, gray absence of response from his brother worried him. The absolute unreadable nature of those dark eyes, made his fingers clench into a fist. The deep lines under Itachi's eyes were carrying purple circles, like he was having trouble sleeping, and his skin was slightly pale. The silence persisted for a moment longer, before his wise older brother spoke finally. "Vengeance solves nothing, little brother. You should live your life for yourself, not for the dead."

The words were like a hundred bee stings to Sasuke's ego, and his memory of his perfect brother's image. He always saw his brother as an infallible amazing man who could and would do anything that needed to be done. Especially for his family. Yet, he was trying to deny Sasuke the right to get revenge for their parents murder. "How can you say that?! They killed mother! And father! And they nearly killed you!" He was getting heated, which was causing the careful coolness he'd adopted since he found out his parents passed, to slip. His emotions were back for the moment, and they were intense.

Itachi absorbed the words like a sponge, but offered no immediate response. After a moment of gazing at one another, Sasuke's anger began to bubble more furiously by the second. "I've spoken my peace on the subject. Live for yourself, Sasuke. If you attempt to chase ghosts, you'll regret it." He spoke serious words that sounded distant in the face of Sasuke's immense hatred.

"I will not let this happen! They tried to slaughter my entire family. I will find them and I will kill them." He gazed down at his brother, a dark threat hanging in his words. "You're going to help me. You saw something, and you're going to tell me what it was."

This seemed to invoke a small response from his perfect brother.

A slight shadow crossed Itachi's brow. "Watch that pride, little brother." The words may have been spoken by a dull voice, but they were as sharp as any scalpel. "I won't help you waste your life."

"If you aren't going to help, then you are no longer a brother of mine!" He spat the words fueled by anger, and he couldn't even tell if he meant them or not. Either way, the origin, whether he meant them or not, was irrelevant at this time. He had said them now, and he couldn't take them back.

The climatic nature of the moment was off-put by a knock on the door, and with only a slight moments pause, it opened. Sasuke whirled around with a frown, and annoyance darkening his eyes, to see a some how familiar sight.

Pink hair, and green eyes. Something that was hard to forget, even though he only saw it once previously.

He gave a deep scowl as he made eye contact with the woman, who was looking at him with minor shock coloring her expression. "Am I interrupting, Itachi-san?"

Before he had the chance to turn around, he heard his brothers steady, even toned voice. "Of course not." At the exact same time he spoke the words, "Yes, actually."

The petite girl went from hesitant upon the simultaneous answers, to frowning. Her eyes were trained on Sasuke, and they were a sharp green, slightly darker with each moment. "I'm sorry, but I haven't seen you here before. Did you sign into the visitor log?" She asked, her tone professionally cold.

He scowled at her and turned back to his brother, who had no sympathy for him. Merely a blank, if anything slightly annoyed, expression "It's time for my check up. You should leave."

Sasuke was offended at the words. "So you're really going to do nothing?" He asked quietly, affronted that his brother wasn't on his side for once.  
Itachi gave him an even stare. "You should have known that from the start. If you need me for anything else, you know where I'll be. Until then, if you are thinking of returning to ask more questions, don't bother coming back."

The words were cold and dark, and they pushed into Sasuke's frame of mind like tar. Enveloping any previous thoughts with their dark, heavy and sticky nature. A darkness that he couldn't simply clean away. It would stay with him for a long time.

"Fine." He spoke cool, heavy words and turned away from his beloved brother quickly.

He cast a hateful glance at the pink haired woman before fleeing the room with what was left of his courage and hope.

His brother had abandoned him. He really truly was alone in this world. His entire family, was gone. Without Itachi by his side helping him, the only one he really had left, was himself.

He would have to avenge his family without the help of his too-good brother.

* * *

Itachi felt something like annoyance, or maybe shame, as Sasuke left the room. Choking annoyance, the kind that turned his saliva into sand in his mouth. That made his hands shake in disbelief.

He glared ahead of him in an unseeing daze. His little brother was a fool.

After a moment, his eyes shifted away from the absence at the door which his brother had just vacated, to land on Sakura.  
He gave her a carefully apologetic nod of his head. "I apologize."

She seemed confused, and awkward for a moment, before shaking her head. "No, I'm sorry. I didn't expect you to have guests." After the words left her, she looked up wide eyed, as if the words sounded so much different than she meant them. "Only because you don't really have many guests." Her weak attempt to remedy the previous sentence only made things worse, which brought a surprising smirk to his lips.

"I have no guests, Sakura-san." Though he meant it teasingly, his voice was still relatively cool and dull.

Even still, she seemed relieved, as if she had a natural ability to understand when he was joking compared to when he was serious. It was something that little people could tell about him. He appreciated that ability of hers now.

"Right, well, let's get your vitals?" She asked with a small smile.

It was apparent that she didn't want to cross any lines, so she didn't bring up what she had walked into. He appreciated her politeness at this time.  
She was at his side quickly after, with her hands reaching towards him slowly. She assumed the task of checking his health, and he watched her carefully.

His eyes tracked her gentle movements and his thoughts drifted back to his little brother.

Sasuke was getting himself into a mess. To think that his brother was so hungry for revenge made Itachi nervous. If that boy started to dig too deep, no telling what he would find. Their family was less perfect than Sasuke even knew.

Itachi frowned at the prospect.

"Itachi-san. Are you feeling any better?" The soft voice of his doctor came to his ears and turned his expression back neutral.

"Yes." He said quietly.

In some ways he was. In other ways, well, he wasn't.

If Sasuke was really so determined, he would have to take action himself and the thought ot that was enough to worry him.

The last thing he wanted was to cause his brother any pain.

"I'm feeling much better, Sakura-san. I think I'd like to be released soon."

The girl gave him a curious gaze. "If you're certain." Her tone was oddly suspicious.

He turned a mellow stare back at her. "I am."

She nodded, and her hands stilled before lifting away from him. She gave him a strangely tight smile. "Alright then. Your vitals look good for now. I'll return later tonight to check up again. You can probably leave the hospital in the morning. I'd say you have a clean bill of health. Just make sure to take it easy."

The rosy girl took a few steps away from him, her green eyes searching. She wasn't the first to be baffled by him, and she wouldn't be the last. He avoided making eye contact. He had grown to like this girl, but things wouldn't do well for him to get involved. Rather he needed to channel his energy into stopping Sasuke from ruining everything.

His stupid little brother. Such misplaced nobility in this world would only cause troubles.

Sakura left the room quietly, with one last curious expression.

As she did, the silence in the room became thick again. He clenched his fists in his lap. Things were getting out of hand, as he had the suspicion they would.


End file.
